Thursday, 30 July 2015

A flying visit to shower you all in Sunshine today! Here is a lovely selection of some of the beautiful commissions that I've had the pleasure to work on over the past month or so, I hope you like them all! I've had a lot of fun doodling for a lot of lovely people lately and hope there's plenty more to come!

Remember, if you'd like to turn yourself, a loved one, pet or anything else into a Sunshine doodle please do get in touch via email (bonjour[at]hello-sunshine.co.uk) or my facebook page - I'd love to hear from you!

Friday, 17 July 2015

If you follow me over on instagram and facebook you may well have seen this photo of my favourite flowers and the mahoosive clue I dropped yesterday about some of my new jewellery designs...

I have always loved sunflowers and for me they are the happiest flowers around. They make me smile for many reasons, their cheery colour, their bold presence and the fond memories of growing them both at home and in school when I was little (and when I was big to be fair!)

So it has been on my hit list for a long time now to design a range of jewellery to try and capture the happiness of these beautiful flowers. Earlier this year I started work on some designs and ideas and although it has taken me WAY longer than I intended I can final start to reveal some sneaky peeks at how the samples are shaping up! Eeep!

So without further waffle I thought I'd use a rather happy Friday (lets face it Friday is one of the happiest days of the week) to share this cheeky peek with you all...

I hope you like the look of these so far and you are as excited as I am about seeing the range come together! I'll be back soon with more peeks I promise... until then...

Sunday, 5 July 2015

After over 120km, one crash, several bruises and too many bloody hills we MADE IT! We got back safe and sound from our mini adventure and managed to set up at the wonderful fabulousplaces.co.uk Summer Market today!

There were so many wonderful stalls (treasures, food and drink) all available and I had a lovely time meeting so many new people and enjoyed catching up with some favourite familiar faces too.

I am now enjoying a cold beverage and some sofa time with this sleepy kitten after such a full on weekend of adventure and sunshine! CHEERS!

For those of you who follow me (and my cats and food) on Instagram, you may have noticed that I have been using the hastag #HelloSunshine5kaday for the past month and I thought I'd take the time to write a little blog post about it all for those who maybe curious about what I'm up to...

Back at the start of June I decided to give myself a little challenge to try and motivate me to get out and about a bit more. Since leaving Boots in March it has been an incredible couple of months filled with adventures (both business and pleasure) and although I have been happier than ever where work life is concerned I was starting to slip again when it came to my health and fitness. So... I set myself this little goal...

Whether I walk, cycle or run, I have set myself the challenge to do at least 5km every day throughout June and July. With this year being the whirlwind it has been so far I have found myself neglecting exercise and have noticed the difference in many ways. So this is my way of giving myself a kick up the bum!
And with that came the daily updates on Instagram, using my very own hashtag #HelloSunshine5kaday. You can see all of the photos of my little challenge so far either on my Instagram feed day to day (@sunshine_jo) or in one place by clicking on the hashtag in one of the photos or if your on a computer, here: https://instagram.com/explore/tags/hellosunshine5kaday/

I'm over half way through my little #HelloSunshine5kaDay challenge now and with the exception of a few days I'm pretty happy with my progress. I realise that 5km might not seem much to others but it's doing something every day (walk/run/cycle/yoga) that's the real challenge for me. Since leaving the day job I have realised how much that commute (small as it may have been) actually got me moving as I would cycle or walk every day. When you work from home, as much of an absolute dream it can be, some days I found myself not leaving the house at all and I was feeling the consequences in more ways than one.

By setting myself this little challenge I have found that even just making the effort to be aware of how much I'm moving each day, whether it's making time for a run, a bit of youtube yoga each morning or taking the long walk to the post office, it has helped SO much. The fact I can also track it and look back at lovely pictures and supportive comments on Instagram makes it a pleasure too!

So I guess that's the down low and here's to another month of #HelloSunshine5kaday updates! If my little challenge helps inspire you to get out and about more each day too I'd love to know. It's great hearing about how other people motivate themselves and what they find helps keep them fit and healthy.

And who knows, maybe this is a challenge I'm going to keep up for many more months past July too as I feel SO MUCH better for getting out there and am starting to feel a lot more like me again! YAY!

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

To celebrate welcoming new designers to shop and doing a spot of redecorating we are hosting a shopping evening! There will be 10% off everything AND Goodie bags worth £25 to the first 10 customers who spend £15!

There will also be live illustrations in the Malt Cross from Handmade Nottingham designers! Head over the event page on Facebook for more: https://www.facebook.com/events/135521096778968/